Is Yellowstone’s Steve Hendon just a ranch-hand… or is he Todd Alquist in cowboy boots? A deep dive into TV’s quietest, coldest killers.

You don’t need a chainsaw to cut through a man’s conscience. A quiet bullet will do. Well, that’s my own line, but it feels apt in this shadowy moral wilderness. How?

Have you ever met a character on screen and felt like you’d seen his ghost before? That was me, watching Yellowstone’s Steve Hendon because something in his blank, lethal stare screamed Todd Alquist, the dead-eyed sociopath from Breaking Bad.

Hendon, played with unnerving restraint by James Jordan, isn’t your everyday livestock agent. Sure, he’s got the badge, but he’s also packing unfiltered violence, institutional privilege, and enough internal rot to fertilize a graveyard.

From accidental killings to cold-blooded murders masked in moral duty, Jordan’s character’s arc in Yellowstone toes the line between enforcer and executioner.

And somewhere between justice and barbarism, he starts echoing that haunting whisper of Todd, the pest-control boy turned meth cook, turned child-killer, turned friendly torturer.

Are these just parallels, or is this character blueprint Taylor Sheridan’s unsaid nod to Vince Gilligan’s soft-spoken monster? Let’s probe the psyches of both men and ask the uncomfortable question: Is Hendon Todd’s rural cousin armed with a badge instead of a lab?

Steve Hendon: Livestock agent or moral pyromaniac?

James Jordan as Livestock Agent Hendon in Yellowstone | Credit: Paramount Network
Let’s chew the fat here: James Jordan’s Hendon wasn’t just herding cows and settling fence disputes. From his entrance in Yellowstone Season 2, he’s been stitched into the Dutton family’s inner ring of loyal operators. While branded a livestock agent, his real job feels more like a clean-up crew for the morally messy.

A man juggling legal authority and unholy impulses, Hendon is often shown partnering with Kayce Dutton, dealing with rancher feuds, greedy land developers, and bureaucratic parasites.

But this isn’t a man who negotiates. This is a man who shoots first and files the paperwork never. In one confrontation, he kills a young man not out of intent, but from volatility. A mistake, sure? But it sets a tone. Hendon isn’t rattled by blood. He is haunted, maybe, but not halted.

By Season 3, things go fully dark. Hendon murders two men accused of assaulting a barrel racer. No trial. No second guesses. Just swift justice from a man with a badge and a boiling sense of righteousness.

By Season 5, Hendon fades from the screen, but not from memory. He survives the storm, sure, but it’s what he leaves behind… a question mark dripping in red that lingers.

Also, let’s not ignore the architect here. Taylor Sheridan has a soft spot for James Jordan. The man has appeared in six of Sheridan’s projects: Mayor of Kingstown, 1883, Special Ops: Lioness, Landman, and more.

Todd Alquist: The devil wears work boots?

Jesse Plemons as Todd Alquist in Breaking Bad | Credit: AMC
Now let’s revisit Todd Alquist in Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad. The man who looked like a polite hardware store clerk and acted like a smiling executioner.

Introduced in Breaking Bad as a helpful, almost invisible technician from Vamonos Pest, Todd’s entrance was as soft as a whisper in a graveyard. But by the time he shoots a child without blinking, you realize this man isn’t broken. He’s never been whole.

Todd’s sociopathy is veiled in passivity. He doesn’t raise his voice. He barely reacts.

Jesse Plemons’ portrayal of Todd wasn’t just villainy; it was an anatomy lesson in amorality. He wasn’t ambitious. He wasn’t angry. He was just… efficient. That’s what made him terrifying.

Are Breaking Bad’s Todd Alquist and Yellowstone’s Steve Hendon cut from the same cloth?

Both men are quiet. Both men follow orders. And both, when unshackled, commit unspeakable violence with unsettling calm. While Todd commits evil as a way to belong to Walt, to Jack, and to the empire, Hendon executes violence in the name of order.

Law is his gospel, and he’s its crusader even if the altar is soaked in blood.

There’s also a peculiar loyalty in both. Todd adores Walt with a childlike need for approval, even after witnessing the man’s decay. Hendon, meanwhile, treats the Duttons as demigods, Jesse Plemons’ character choosing them over law, over logic, over self-preservation. Loyalty isn’t a virtue here; it’s a leash.

But what cements the comparison is their capacity for detached violence. Not rage. Not revenge. Just duty. And maybe.. just maybe, a touch of pleasure.

I will again ask: Did Taylor Sheridan model Hendon after Todd? Maybe. Or maybe the archetype. These men are not insane. They are not out of control. They are controlled, and that’s what’s terrifying. But both show us the same truth: a man doesn’t need to yell or laugh maniacally to be a villain. Sometimes, all he needs is a cause… and permission.

As I always say, “When good men justify bad acts, monsters get uniforms.” And Hendon wears his like a second skin.